AN GAODHAL.
15
numerous readers of that paper, and soon an
Irish language class was organized in Brook-
lyn by Mr. Logan ; and owing greatly to the
exertions of Mr. P. J. O'Daly, to Boston fell
the honor of organizing the first association
for teaching the Irish language ever formed in
America, the Boston Philo-Celtic Society. It
is now, I believe, in a prosperous condition,
and has caused to be made mattrices and
punches for making Irish type, and from a
font of their type the Gaelic matter in THE
GAEL is printed.
The class established in Brooklyn, cotempo-
raneously with the Boston Society, on account
of the paucity of the requisite elementary
books, made no appreciable headway, and
finally disbanded. But Michael J. Logan was
not the man to be discouraged, even by these
very discouraging circumstances. He set zea-
lously to work, and two years later (1874) had
gathered together a class of about twenty-five,
who met in his office in Atlantic Avenue.
Owing to the same cause which brought fail-
ure before, they made but slight progress.
However, they organized the Brooklyn Philo-
Celtic Society, with Mr. John Bullman as
President, Mr. Patrick Carrick, of the Irish
World, as Vice-President, and Messrs. M. J.
Logan and Robert O'Brien, Secretaries. They
kept the organization intact until the Society
for the Preservation of the Irish Language
was formed in Dublin. This Society com-
piled and published an entirely new and orig-
inal series of elementary books, comprising an
Irish Copy-Book, First, Second and Third
Irish Books, etc. The publication of these
much-heeded works gave to the movement
everywhere a new impetus. The resultant in-
crease in the membership of the Brooklyn So-
ciety made a removal to more commodious
quarters a necessity, and the hall, No. 365
Fulton Street, was secured. A call for a pub-
lic meeting was then published in the local
Irish papers. As a result, at our next meeting
the hall was crowded with Irish and Irish-
American men and women, boys and girls, all
anxious to begin the study of the language.
(A very remarkable peculiarity of this assem-
blage was that they were all thoughtful, intel-
ligent-looking people — the class you will
always find enlisted in any new movement.)
Many could hardly credit the evidence of their
senses that a way was really open to them to
learn their native tongue by becoming mem-
bers of the Brooklyn Philo-Celtic Society at
the insignificant expense of twenty-five cents
a month! (And let me here say, that Irish-
man whose “patriotism” cannot rise to the
extent of twenty-five cents monthly is a sad
commentary on the boasted “chivalry” of his
ancestors.) Fifty names were added to our
roll at that meeting. Meetings continued to
be held, each bringing new accessions to our
ranks, until the membership began to reach
up among the hundreds, and so we were com-
pelled to move to the still more commodious
hall, Nos. 353 and 355 Fulton Street.
About this time (1878) a number of our
members resident in New York City — notably
Messrs. Ward, O'Neill, Ryan, McGuire and
Egan — expressed a desire to have a class
formed there, and one was accordingly organ-
ized at 214 Bowery. Thence they removed
soon after to 96 Bowery, where they organized
the New York Society for the Preservation of
the Irish Language, in affiliation with the
Brooklyn Philo-Celtic Society. This Society
now meets at Clarendon Hall, 114 and 116
East Thirteenth Street. The zeal and ability
displayed by its organizers and leading mem-
bers have won for them the admiration of all
with whom they have come in contact, and for
the Society a foremost place among the liter-
ary societies of New York City. It has done
more for the cultivation of Irish music — vocal
and instrumental — in connection with the
study of the language, than any similar organ-
ization in this country.
Meanwhile, the movement continued to ad-
vance, spreading over the whole country.
Schools and societies sprang up everywhere —
from the Mississippi to the Atlantic, and from
the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico — those
already organized giving encouragement and
good cheer and all possible practical assistance
to others wishing to emulate their example.
The only regretable thing was and is that a
regular correspondence could not be main-
tained. Such correspondence would, I think,
tend greatly to establish a community of inter-
ests among those engaged in the movement,
thereby developing the hardly-to-be-estimated
possibilities which to my mind this movement
presents.
Looking back to the time when Mr. Logan,
who truly deserves the title of “Father of the
Movement," struggled alone — unassisted —
hoping almost against hope — it cannot be de¬
nied that great progress has been made during
the past few years. Yes, much has been done
but much, much more remains to be done. To
this work THE GAEL is consecrated. If Irish-
men will remember the words of the illustri-
ous Archbishop of Tuam, “If you wish to
have an honest press, you ought honestly to
